Dr. Fred Craddock tells the story of an annual Easter tradition at one church in Georgia. Every year, on Easter Sunday, the church was decorated with 500 Easter lilies! The lilies were arranged on the chancel in the shape of a cross, placed in each window of the church, across the altar rail, across the front of the baptistry – literally everywhere you looked on Easter morning, you could see Easter lilies! Each year, members of the church were given the opportunity to have one of the lilies placed there in honor or memory of a loved one for a contribution of $5. Only $5! And you didn’t even have to take them home with you after the service. The church would dispose of them. Everyone just assumed that they were taken to shut-ins and hospitals and the like.

All went well until one Easter Sun…